


The Algorithm of Love

by Ellsey



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Emma (Jane Austen), Background Korper, Background Vicizzy, F/M, background Philinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29913420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellsey/pseuds/Ellsey
Summary: Daisy Johnson has lived a charmed life with lots of friends around her, including her neighbor/best friend Daniel Sousa. She's pretty sure that she has an algorithm that can predict the compatibility of two people, and now she's ready to make sure everyone around her is happy in love.Yes, this is a modern Emma AU.
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	The Algorithm of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is the first time I've tried to adapt a book and by far the longest thing I've ever written (as a coherent fic and not just a collection of stuff). I hope you enjoy it!

Daisy Johnson had lived a charmed life. She grew up in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood, with a nice family. Her parents, Cal and Jiaying, were both doctors, and Daisy and her older sister Kora had never wanted for anything.

They even had the best neighbors. The Sousas had two children as well, and Daisy and Kora were often found with Daniel and Piper, having fun (or wreaking havoc, depending on who you asked). 

Down the street lived Isabella and Victoria, two women with mysterious pasts and a very loving relationship. Daisy would have adored them if not for their niece Bobbi. It wasn’t that Daisy didn’t like Bobbi, it was just that Bobbi was good at everything. Literally everything. She sang like an angel. She was super smart. She got scouted in a mall to be a model. Daisy felt like she could never compare. Izzy and Vic loved to talk about Bobbi, and Daisy could only take so much of it. 

Unfortunately, things change, and sometimes tragedy strikes. Phil Coulson, the man who lived across the street from Daisy, had a sweet wife and step-son. However, his wife died in a tragic accident, and Phil’s stepson Hunter was forced to return to the UK where a rich aunt had promised to care for him. Hunter had never returned to visit Phil again as his aunt seemed to keep him under her thumb. 

Then, when Daisy was 10, her mom got sick. It was very fast progressing, and soon Jiaying passed away. Daisy and her sister were heartbroken. Their father withdrew into himself, no longer the boisterous man they had known. It was a rough time, but Daniel and Piper were always there to support Kora and Daisy. 

Another source of support for the sisters came from their language tutor, Melinda May. They had taken lessons from her for as long as they could remember, and she took them under her wing soon after their mother’s death. May became a support system, a confidante, and an additional mother figure for them. Daisy especially loved May very much, and they became quite close over the years.

From a young age, Daisy had shown a great interest in two things: computers and people. It turned out that Daisy was amazing at writing code. It made complete sense to her, and she knew that this was her calling in life.

Another thing Daisy was interested in was human emotions. One in particular: love. It fascinated her. She saw it everywhere around her. The love her father had for Kora and her. The romantic love of Izzy and Vic. The tumultuous sibling dynamics that made up the love between Daisy and Kora. Daisy began to wonder if you could predict these things. 

So she began asking people she trusted about love, starting with Kora.

“Kora, what is love?”

Kora made a face. “Why are you asking me that? Aren’t you a little young for love?”

“I mean, I’m 16, so I wouldn’t say I’m too young. But also this isn’t about me,” Daisy told her.

“I don’t know, when I think of love I always think of how Dad used to listen to all of Mom’s favorite Chinese music even though he doesn’t really speak the language.” Kora sighed. “I guess to me love is learning to appreciate what the other person likes.”

Next, she asked her father. “Dad, what is love?”

“Uh oh, is my little girl falling in love with someone?” Despite his words, he didn’t look very concerned.

Daisy shook her head. “Dad, I’m not asking for me. I’m just asking in like, theory.”

Cal laughed. “Well, love is different for different people. For example, your mother used to always let me read the front page of the newspaper before she did. So for us, love was sacrificing something small just to make someone else happy.”

Daisy sighed. “You guys really loved each other, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Cal said, nodding, “we did.”

As time passed, she continued to work on her idea. One day, she asked Izzy and Vic.

“What is love?” Izzy echoed. She looked at her wife. “Sticking with someone through thick and thin.”

“That was honestly a way cheesier answer than I was expecting,” Daisy said. “What about you Vic?”

“Hmmm.” Vic thought for a moment. “It’s always keeping the other person’s secrets.”

Daisy looked between the two. “Wait, do you have some sort of exciting secrets? Oh, please, please tell me.”

“No,” they said in unison. Daisy wasn’t sure which part they were saying no to though.

When Daisy was 17, Daniel left for law school. Daisy was going to miss him. Even though he was a little older than her, she felt like he was one of her best friends. She had hesitated asking him about this project though, and she couldn’t quite figure out why. Daisy decided to just ask him, because after three years in a far off place, he may not come back the same friend she had known before.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” 

They had gone out for frozen yogurt with Kora and Piper, but the other two had ditched them for...unknown reasons. They had always been very close, but lately they seemed to be leaving Daniel and Daisy alone more and more often.

“Sure,” Daniel said.

For some reason Daisy felt awkward talking about this with Daniel but she pressed ahead.“What is love?”

He studied her for a moment. “Is this theoretical or practical?”

“Theoretical.” Daisy made a face at him. “Why does everyone keep asking me that? I am baby. I’m not interested in love.”

“People are probably asking you that because you’re asking them about love.”

“I’m asking because…” Daisy paused for a moment, wondering how much she should tell him. She decided to go for broke. “I’m writing an algorithm that will predict if two people will be good together. You know, in a romantic sense.”

“Only two people?”

“That’s very open-minded of you Daniel. I’m proud. But yes, only two people for the time being. Any more than that is going to cause me more problems than I want to math through at present.”

“And asking people what they think about love helps...how?” He looked confused.

“Because it helps me see what people think. What things are important to them. Basically I have a questionnaire that people fill out, and then the answers are ranked. Then my algorithm goes through and sorts things and does some fancy calculations to determine how compatible they are.” She could see he looked skeptical. “It’s a work in progress,” she said with a wave of her hand. 

“Hmmm,” was all he said in response.

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Fine, don’t answer the question. I should have known better than to ask you about love anyway. Have you ever even had a girlfriend?” He started to open his mouth, but she interrupted him. “Peggy doesn’t count. She was very obviously hung up on her ex. The only person who didn’t see it is you.”

“And that makes my feelings less real because…?”

“Because if you had any sense about you then you would never have gotten involved with her in the first place.” Daisy crossed her arms. “Sorry, but she broke your heart, and that’s an unforgivable sin in my book.”

He laughed. “She didn’t break my heart, not really. But I appreciate the loyalty.”

“Which brings me back to my first point. What do you know about love?”

“Peggy is not the only person I’ve ever dated Daisy.”

“But were you really in love with any of them?” 

“Sure,” he said airily.

Daisy stared him down. “Fine. What is love? In your opinion?”

“You can’t define love. It’s different every time. In fact, it’s different all the time, even with the same person. It’s not just one thing. Ever.”

“Ugh,” Daisy said, rolling her eyes dramatically. “I knew I shouldn’t have asked you.” She saw Piper and Kora coming up then. “I’ll ask your much wiser sister instead.” She turned to the other two girls. “Hey Piper, what is love?”

“Kora warned me you might ask this at some point, so I won’t bother telling you what a weird question this is,” Piper replied. “I don’t know, I think love is just wanting to be with someone. I mean, I pretty much hate everyone. Wanting to be around someone constantly is usually a pretty good sign for me.”

Daisy noticed that Piper kept glancing Kora’s way as she talked, and Daisy was struck with a sudden idea. Was it possible that Kora and Piper were interested in each other? It made so much sense. Why hadn’t she noticed it before now? Daisy looked to where Piper was now trying to annoy her brother. Did Daniel know about Kora and Piper? 

She went home and worked furiously coding through the night. Daisy felt inspired. She texted Daniel at 5 AM.

_ I did it!!! _

His response was only slightly delayed.  _ Did what? Do you need help? Should I call the police? _

_ What? No. My love algorithm. I worked all night. It’s working. Mostly. I just need test subjects.  _

_...ok… _

_ Not you. Is Piper up yet? _

_ Why don’t you text her and ask? I’m going back to sleep Daisy.  _

After a few minutes she got another text from Daniel.  _ Congratulations though, I guess. _

_ I thought you were going back to sleep? _

_ Zzzzz _

Daisy laughed, but his point was correct. She waited until much later to text both Piper to come take her test. It was just some questions about attitudes towards various things in life. After Piper left, Daisy had Kora come take it, then sent her away as well. Daisy loaded up the comparison and saw their number: 95% compatible. She almost danced around the room, but she held herself back.

Now she just needed to get Kora and Piper to see how compatible they were. 

That proved to be more difficult than she had thought. She tried to talk to Kora, but Kora seemed oblivious to what she was saying. Then Daisy tried talking to Piper, but that also went nowhere. Finally Daisy had them promise to take her to watch fireworks at the beach then faked getting sick. It wasn’t ideal, but it seemed to do the trick. 

Two years later, Daisy excitedly stood next to her sister, watching Kora and Piper say their marriage vows. Daisy was pretty sure she couldn’t be any happier than at this moment.

“So,” Daisy said, taking a seat next to Daniel, “are we like brother and sister now?”

“What?”

“Well my sister is married to your sister, so we’re practically related now.”

He gave her a funny look. “Legally I don’t think this makes us anything.”

“I mean, I guess,” Daisy said. “But you’re not quite a real lawyer yet, so maybe it just hasn’t been covered in your classes yet.”

“Riiiight.”

“Anyway, are you going to congratulate me?”

“Congratulate you on what?”

“Getting our sisters together,” Daisy said excitedly. “My algorithm showed that they were 95% compatible, so I pushed them to go out, and here we are.”

Daniel laughed at her. “I’m not sure you get any credit in this. Piper’s had a crush on your sister since...well, forever. It was only a matter of time until she made a move.”

“Then tell me, why did I have to push them together?”

“Piper told me about that. She said it was pretty obvious what was going on.”

Daisy made a face at him. “It was not obvious. I was very smooth.”

He just shrugged. “That’s not the story I heard.”

“Whatever, I’m going to find my next pair tonight.” Daisy scanned the room for a while, finally settling on the table where Phil Coulson sat. He was talking to someone, but his eyes kept wandering over to where May was sitting. Daisy almost gasped in surprise. They were perfect for each other.

Daniel interrupted her train of thought. “I recognize that look on your face Daisy. What are you up to?”

For a moment she thought about telling him, but she decided against it. “Oh nothing. But I need to go talk to May. Come see me before you go back to school, ok?” 

Without waiting for his answer, Daisy went to go talk to May. She convinced May to help her out by testing out her program, then went and got Coulson to do the same. Just as she suspected, their compatibility number was very high. And just like with Kora and Piper, getting May and Coulson together took a little bit of work on Daisy’s part. She convinced May to take her to the theater, then pretended she had a school thing she couldn’t miss and got Coulson to go with her instead. 

It may have been a flimsy premise, but attending their wedding one year later proved that it worked. Daisy had continued tweaking her algorithm, but it looked like it was a huge success. 

“I told you so,” she said to Daniel when he brought her a piece of cake later that evening. He had just graduated and was moving back to work in a local practice.

“You told me what?” he asked, sitting down next to her.

“I can predict love!”

“Are you trying to take credit for this wedding too?”

“I deserve credit for this wedding,” she said. “I saw them at Kora and Piper’s wedding, and I knew they were destined to be together. My program confirmed it. So I just sort of helped them get together.”

“What did you do this time?” He sounded more amused than bothered.

“Trapped them in a theater together. I got busy with school, and they never knew what hit them.”

“Remind me to never go anywhere with you again. I have no desire to be set up with anyone.”

Daisy laughed. “No one around here is good enough for you anyway. But I’m glad you’re going to be back. It’s been way less fun without you.”

“Thanks, I think.” He smiled at her in a way that made her feel a little...different. 

Daisy frowned. This was new, but she quickly pushed it down and forgot about it. Her algorithm was a success and Daniel was moving back for good. Life was pretty good for Daisy Johnson. 


End file.
